Every year millions of people, companies, and other institutions file various forms with a variety of different entities, including the agencies of local, state, and national governments. These forms may be directed towards financial matters including taxes, inventory, financial accounts, medical reimbursements, etc. In addition, such forms may be related to non-financial activity, such as obtaining support for a purchase item or service, completing forms designated for new patients used by doctors, dentists, or hospitals, etc. Each form may have multiple data fields requiring completion by a user (e.g., an individual, a company, an institution, etc.). For example, in the case of tax forms, a user is required to complete data fields associated with income, mortgage interest, student loans, deductions, etc.
A user may employ the services of an expert to assist in completing and filing a form. For example, in the case of a tax form, a user may employ the services of a tax expert to assist in completing and filing the tax form. The tax expert may be required to gather the appropriate financial information from the user and from financial records (e.g., W-2 forms, bank statements, receipts, etc.) to complete the tax form. The order in which the tax expert completes the financial form and/or the order in which the tax expert gathers financial information to complete the financial form may be of a specific format.
A user may also employ a software package to assist in completing and filing a form. The software package may be used to ensure that the data provided to complete a form is accurate and complies with standard regulations. The software package may separate the financial form into sections, request data using an interview process, and perform automatic calculations of different fields within the form. Like the case of an expert, the order in which the software package gathers data and the order in which the software package gathers information to complete the form may be of a specific format.